Harmonic Announces Fourth Quarter and Fiscal 2017 Results

SAN JOSE, Calif., Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Harmonic Inc. (NASDAQ: HLIT), the worldwide leader in video delivery technology and cable access virtualization, today announced its unaudited results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended December 31, 2017.

Q4 Financial and Business Highlights

• GAAP revenue $101.0 million, up 9.7% sequentially; non-GAAP revenue $101.1 million, up 10.3% sequentially
• Video segment revenue: GAAP and non-GAAP $87.6 million
• Cable Edge segment revenue: GAAP $13.4 million; non-GAAP $13.5 million
• Operating margin: GAAP (8.0)%; non-GAAP 1.5%
• Announced first scale CableOS deployment, and world's first virtualized cable access network
• CableOS deployments and advanced field trials now total >12
• Second consecutive quarter of sequential Video segment revenue growth and >6.5% non-GAAP Video operating margin
• Video SaaS ARR $9.1 million, up > 300% year-over-year
• Bookings $122.9M up 28% sequentially, drove record backlog and deferred revenue of $224.4M
• Generated $9 million cash from operations; ended quarter with $57 million cash and cash equivalents.

"Q4 was our highest revenue quarter of 2017, and our largest booking quarter in several years," said Patrick Harshman, president and chief executive officer of Harmonic. "We recently announced our first scale CableOS deployment, and now have over 12 CableOS commercial deployments and advanced field trials. In our Video segment, expanding success with our OTT streaming solutions enabled us to deliver our second consecutive quarter of profitable growth."

Select Financial Information

Explanations regarding our use of non-GAAP financial measures and related definitions, and reconciliations of our GAAP and non-GAAP measures, are provided in the sections below entitled "Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures" and "GAAP to Non-GAAP Reconciliations".

Q1 Financial Guidance and Outlook for 2018

Conference Call Information

Harmonic will host a conference call to discuss its financial results at 2:00 p.m. Pacific (5:00 p.m. Eastern) on Wednesday, February 28, 2018. A listen-only broadcast of the conference call can be accessed either from the Company's website at www.harmonicinc.com or by calling 1.574.990.1032 or +1.800.240.9147 (passcode 2263129). A replay will be available after 4:30 p.m. PT on the same web site or by calling +1.404.537.3406 or +1.855.859.2056 (passcode 2263129).

About Harmonic Inc.

Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT), the worldwide leader in video delivery technology and services, enables media companies and service providers to deliver ultra-high-quality broadcast and OTT video services to consumers globally. The Company has also revolutionized cable access networking via the industry's first virtualized CCAP solution, enabling cable operators to more flexibly deploy gigabit internet service to consumers' homes and mobile devices. Whether simplifying OTT video delivery via innovative cloud and software-as-a-service (SaaS) technologies, or powering the delivery of gigabit internet cable services, Harmonic is changing the way media companies and service providers monetize live and VOD content on every screen. More information is available at www.harmonicinc.com.

Legal Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including statements related to our expectations regarding: GAAP net revenue, GAAP gross margins, GAAP operating expenses, GAAP operating loss, GAAP tax expense, GAAP EPS, non-GAAP revenue, non-GAAP gross margins, non-GAAP operating expenses, non-GAAP operating income (loss), non-GAAP tax rate and non-GAAP EPS for the first quarter of 2018 and for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2018, and share count and cash at March 30, 2018 and December 31, 2018. Our expectations regarding these matters may not materialize, and actual results in future periods are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. These risks include, in no particular order, the following: the trends toward more high-definition, on-demand and anytime, anywhere video will not continue to develop at its current pace; the possibility that our products will not generate sales that are commensurate with our expectations or that our cost of revenue or operating expenses may exceed our expectations; the mix of products and services sold in various geographies and the effect it has on gross margins; delays or decreases in capital spending in the cable, satellite, telco, broadcast and media industries; customer concentration and consolidation; the impact of general economic conditions on our sales and operations; our ability to develop new and enhanced products in a timely manner and market acceptance of our new or existing products; losses of one or more key customers; risks associated with our international operations; exchange rate fluctuations of the currencies in which we conduct business; risks associated with our CableOS™ and VOS™ product solutions; dependence on market acceptance of various types of broadband services, on the adoption of new broadband technologies and on broadband industry trends; inventory management; the lack of timely availability of parts or raw materials necessary to produce our products; the impact of increases in the prices of raw materials and oil; the effect of competition, on both revenue and gross margins; difficulties associated with rapid technological changes in our markets; risks associated with unpredictable sales cycles; our dependence on contract manufacturers and sole or limited source suppliers; and the effect on our business of natural disasters. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are also subject to other risks and uncertainties, including those more fully described in Harmonic's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2016, our most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and our Current Reports on Form 8-K. The forward-looking statements in this press release are based on information available to the Company as of the date hereof, and Harmonic disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements.

Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

The Company reports its financial results in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States ("GAAP" or referred to herein as "reported"). However, management believes that certain non-GAAP financial measures provide management and other users with additional meaningful financial information that should be considered when assessing our ongoing performance. Our management regularly uses our supplemental non-GAAP financial measures internally to understand, manage and evaluate our business, establish operating budgets, set internal measurement targets and make operating decisions.

These non-GAAP measures are not in accordance with, or an alternative for, measures prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles and may be different from non-GAAP measures used by other companies. In addition, these non-GAAP measures are not based on any comprehensive set of accounting rules or principles. The Company believes that non-GAAP measures have limitations in that they do not reflect all of the amounts associated with Harmonic's results of operations as determined in accordance with GAAP and that these measures should only be used to evaluate Harmonic's results of operations in conjunction with the corresponding GAAP measures.

The Company believes that the presentation of non-GAAP measures when shown in conjunction with the corresponding GAAP measures, provides useful information to investors and management regarding financial and business trends relating to its financial condition and its historical and projected results of operations. Non-GAAP financial measures should be viewed in addition to, and not as an alternative to, the Company's reported results prepared in accordance with GAAP.

The non-GAAP measures presented here are: revenue, gross profit, operating expenses, income (loss) from operations, non-operating expenses and net income (loss) (including those amounts as a percentage of revenue), and net income (loss) per diluted share. The presentation of non-GAAP information is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for results prepared in accordance with GAAP, and is not necessarily comparable to non-GAAP results published by other companies. A reconciliation of the historical non-GAAP financial measures discussed in this press release to the most directly comparable historical GAAP financial measures is included with the financial statements provided with this press release. The non-GAAP adjustments described below have historically been excluded from our GAAP financial measures.

Our non-GAAP financial measures reflect adjustments based on the following items, as well as the related income tax effects:

Cable Edge inventory charge - Harmonic from time to time incurs inventory impairment charges associated with material business shifts, such as the repositioning of our Cable Edge segment. We exclude these items, because we do not believe they are reflective of our ongoing long-term business and operating results.

Stock-based compensation - Although stock-based compensation is a key incentive offered to our employees, we continue to evaluate our business performance excluding stock-based compensation expenses. We believe that management is limited in its ability to project the impact stock-based compensation would have on our operating results. In addition, for comparability purposes, we believe it is useful to provide a non-GAAP financial measure that excludes stock-based compensation in order to better understand the long-term performance of our core business and to facilitate the comparison of our results to the results of our peer companies.

Amortization of intangibles - A portion of the purchase price of our acquisitions is generally allocated to intangible assets, and is subject to amortization. However, Harmonic does not acquire businesses on a predictable cycle. Additionally, the amount of an acquisition's purchase price allocated to intangible assets and the term of its related amortization can vary significantly and is unique to each acquisition. Therefore, we believe that the presentation of non-GAAP financial measures that adjust for the amortization of intangible assets provides investors and others with a consistent basis for comparison across accounting periods.

Restructuring and related charges - Harmonic from time to time incurs restructuring charges which primarily consist of employee severance, one-time termination benefits related to the reduction of its workforce, lease exit costs, and other costs.  These charges are associated with material business shifts. We exclude these items because we do not believe they are reflective of our ongoing long-term business and operating results.

TVN acquisition- and integration- related costs - As a result of the Company's acquisition of Thomson Video Networks (TVN) in February 2016, the Company incurred acquisition-and integration-related expenses, including legal, accounting and other professional services as well as integration-related costs that are not expected to generate future benefits once the integration is fully consummated. We exclude these transaction and integration expenses because we believe these expenses have no direct correlation to the operation of our business, and because we believe that the non-GAAP financial measures excluding these costs provide meaningful supplemental information regarding our operational performance and liquidity. In addition, excluding these costs from the non-GAAP measures facilitates comparisons to our historical operating results and comparisons to peer company operating results.

Inventory fair value adjustment - Purchase accounting requires us to measure acquired inventory at fair value. The fair value of inventory reflects the acquired company's cost of manufacturing plus a portion of the expected profit margin. The non-GAAP adjustments to our cost of revenues exclude the expected profit margin component that is recorded under purchase accounting associated with our acquisitions. We believe the adjustments are useful to investors as an additional means to reflect cost of revenues and gross margin trends of our business.

Deferred revenue fair value adjustment - We define non-GAAP net revenues as net revenues excluding the impact of purchase accounting. In connection with our acquisitions, the acquired deferred revenue balances were required to be written down due to purchase accounting in accordance with GAAP. The impact on revenues related to purchase accounting as a result of these transactions, limits the comparability of revenues between periods. We do not expect revenues generated from new contracts to be similarly impacted by purchase accounting adjustments. Accordingly, we believe presenting non-GAAP net revenues to exclude the impact of purchase accounting adjustments aids in the comparability between periods and in assessing our overall operating performance.

Non-cash interest expense related to convertible notes - We record the accretion of the debt discount related to the equity component and amortization of issuance costs as non-cash interest expense. We believe that excluding these costs provides meaningful supplemental information regarding operational performance and liquidity, along with enhancing investors' ability to view the Company's results from management's perspective. In addition, we believe excluding these costs from the non-GAAP measures facilitates comparisons to our historical operating results and comparisons to peer company operating results.

Accounting impact related to warrant amortization - We issued a warrant to a customer, Comcast Corporation, in September 2016 pursuant to which Comcast may purchase up to 7.8 million shares of Harmonic common stock. Vesting of the warrant shares is subject to Comcast achieving certain milestones and purchase volume commitments, and therefore the accounting guidance requires that the value of the warrant be recorded as a reduction in the Company's net revenues. Until final vesting, changes in the fair value of the warrant share will be marked to market and any adjustment as such will also be recorded in revenue. The change in fair value together with vested warrant shares are amortized to revenue using a ratio of revenue recognized from the customer in the period compared to total revenue expected from the customer. We have excluded the effect of warrant amortization in our non-GAAP financial measures. Management believes it is useful to exclude the charge for the fair value of the warrant shares in order to better understand the effects of these items on our total revenues and gross margin.

Loss on impairment of long-term investments - We exclude the effect of any other-than-temporary impairment of a cost method investment in calculating our non-GAAP financial measures. We exclude these items because we do not believe they are reflective of our ongoing long-term business and operating results.

Avid litigation settlement and associated legal fees - In the third quarter of fiscal 2017, we settled the patent litigation with Avid Technology, Inc. by entering into a settlement and patent portfolio cross-license agreement with Avid. Under the agreement, we agreed to pay Avid a one-time non-recurring amount of $6 million in installments. $2.5 million was paid upfront in October 2017 and $1.5 million and $2.0 million will be paid in 2019 and 2020, respectively. Also, the Avid litigation costs of approximately $1.4 million and $0.7 million in the third and fourth fiscal quarter of 2017, respectively, were significantly higher compared to prior periods. We excluded these expenses from our non-GAAP results because we do not believe they are reflective of our ongoing long-term business and operating results.

Discrete tax items and tax effect of non-GAAP adjustments - The income tax effect of non-GAAP adjustments relates to the tax effect of the adjustments that we incorporate into non-GAAP financial measures in order to provide a more meaningful measure of non-GAAP net income.

The Company has also provided in this release the following non-GAAP financial measure:

Annual recurring revenue (ARR) - ARR is used to assess the trajectory of our OTT SaaS business. ARR means, as of a specified date, the contracted recurring revenue which includes both subscription and maintenance contracts (and excludes perpetual license, term license and service agreements) that are current and booked with a future start date. ARR should be viewed independently of revenue and any other GAAP measure.